11 Sep 2016

The Ambassador of China to Botswana, Mr Zheng Zhu Qiang says his country is ready to continue assisting Botswana in skills development.  

Speaking at Business Botswana Annual General Meeting on Wednesday (September 7), Mr Zheng said his country was helped by a policy they adopted in the 1970s which gave foreign companies investing in China tax breaks for training their staff. 

“As a result, after years, the workers hired by foreign companies became well-trained,” he said adding China had the biggest group of skilled workers in the world. The Chinese ambassador said Botswana should also make more stimulation policies to make investment easier and foreign enterprises would bring more technology and transform the country. 

Mr Zheng said the Economic Stimulus Programme (ESP) involved the manufacturing companies and building industry and this meant there would be more domestic skilled labours such as boilermakers, electricians, bricklayers and carpenters. 

He said he was happy the Chinese companies were already helping in this area. The Chinese ambassador said the diamond industry could also offer skills in mining, diamond cutting and other skills. He further said there was need to diversify industries saying his country once had a flourishing textile industry but decided to diversify the economy and developed electronic and automobile industry which in turn required skills. 

Botswana could develop its industry and make its workers more skilled and competitive, he said. ENDS